We got the idea from reading papers" Benue based young men nabbed for stealing ATM cards to fund their lavish lifestyles.

Police authorities in Abuja smashed a
syndicate that specialised in robbing bank
customers by swindling them of their
Automatic Teller Machine, ATM, cards and
pins, with the leader saying they got their
‘business’ idea from reading newspapers. .
.
Vanguard gathered that the suspects, who
were identified as David Wuese, Chika Okenyi,
Omotayo Bamidele and Akura Godwin, were
apprehended following complaints from
members of the public to the Inspector
General Police, Ibrahim Idris, who deployed
his operatives at the Special Intelligence
Response Team, IRT, to trail and arrest the
suspects. .
.
Sources at Force Headquarters disclosed that
members of the syndicate were trailed to
hideouts in Enugu, Benue and Nassarawa
states, where they were arrested and over 70
ATM cards recovered from them. A source
said the suspects confessed during
interrogations that they normally steal the
ATM cards and pins while pretending to assist
customers solve issues at ATM points. .
.
When Vanguard interviewed the suspects, the
leader of the syndicate Wuese, aged 27,
disclosed that the syndicate was formed in
Makurdi, Benue State, and they carried out
their activities across several states in the
country. Wuese said: “We read about
something similar to our operation in the
newspapers, but modified it. Some of the ATM
cards found in our possession were all invalid
and that was what we were using to steal from
our victims .
.
.
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“We don’t operate in one state. After stealing a
card, we will check the balance and if the
money is below N20,000, we don’t touch it.
But if the amount in the account is huge, we
withdraw money by phones, which we would
resell at cheaper prices. “Sometimes, we take
the ATMs to night clubs and hotels where we
pay with cards. In our last operation, we
bought three Samsung Galaxy Edge for
N245,000 each and we sold them for
N215,000. .
.
.
“We also bought three Blackberry Passport for
N130,000 each and sold them for N90,000.
We also got two Infinix phones for N82,000
and it was sold for N60,000.